1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

I've been known to sit in the woods from daylight till dark, temps in the teens, waiting for a deer to walk by.

I do that too. Usually for the entire 9 day season which starts on Nov 5. My brother calls it “rotting away in a tree.” Lol

I like when you guys talk tackle. I am so far behind all of you in tackle knowledge. I am shopping hard swimbaits this evening. Phish's fish persuaded me. 

55 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I am so far behind all of you in tackle knowledge.

 

Lady, having seen your work in this thread, I don't think you're missing much. 

4 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I bought it at Mark's the other day, action is amazing, high-quality hardware as well, however I just had to go back to Marks today to exchange it for another one because the nylon tail flew out on a cast.   Then I get the new one, check it, and it slides right out.   So while very budget friendly, and great in every other regard, be prepared to glue this bait from the jump.  

Duckett Baits BD Shad Slow Sinking Swimbaits - Tackle Warehouse

 

It's got this killer strong magnet that holds a unique front treble tight to the body.   

 

I found one of these at one of my favorite spots a while back, cleaned it up and replaced the hardware and the action is definitely good on it. Caught some decent fish with it, but no giants yet, biggest was one just a bit over 4lb. Best luck with it has been running it just subsurface almost like a wakebait.

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I like when you guys talk tackle. I am so far behind all of you in tackle knowledge. I am shopping hard swimbaits this evening. Phish's fish persuaded me. 

If we could catch 50 Bass a morning, we wouldn't have the time to buy or research tackle either ?

 

 

49 minutes ago, Aaron_H said:

 

I found one of these at one of my favorite spots a while back, cleaned it up and replaced the hardware and the action is definitely good on it. Caught some decent fish with it, but no giants yet, biggest was one just a bit over 4lb. Best luck with it has been running it just subsurface almost like a wakebait.

Dang, not only would I get a kick out of finding the regular lures you guys do, but to find $25 swimbaits......LUCKEEEE ?

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I am so far behind all of you in tackle knowledge.

And yet you caught 22 more fish than I did yesterday. Way to go HAMMER!!! At the rate you catch them, I'm starting to believe Z-Man named their top of the line chatterbait after YOU!!!

7 hours ago, galyonj said:

 

Lady, having seen your work in this thread, I don't think you're missing much. 

I'll second that. Personally, I'm coming around full circle. I'm throwing less different stuff as the years go by. I have a handfull of confidence baits, and mostly just roll with those.

6 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

If we could catch 50 Bass a morning, we wouldn't have the time to buy or research tackle either

Amen Brother!!!

You guys are always so supportive. 

 

I do like using new lures and adding to my options. One of my proudest achievements this summer was landing a 19" bass on a frog and one morning, catching seven on a frog. I also caught largemouth bass on a jerkbait, soft plastic swimbait, lipless crankbait, spinnerbait, fluke, and wakebait this summer, all for the first time. I still need to work on my technique with the soft plastic swimbait and frog, as I miss most of my hits, but I love how I can cast both of them into cover. 

 

I'll never be able to carry as many lures as the rest of you because I'm literally carrying my 15' 6" boat and the approach to the water is rarely flat and it's often dark. My tacklebox is the size of a purse, so I can wear it on my shoulder while carrying the rods, paddles, and fish measuring trough. My one luxury is five rods and I do use all five. Sometimes I'll make two casts with one rod, another two with another, and all the way down the line. I often catch a fish with one lure and change immediately to another. I'm a curious fisher. I don't commit to one lure/rod until I'm pretty certain that there's a pattern. I made that mistake one morning, casting and casting and CASTING the Whopper Plopper because that's what they'd wanted many mornings. When I finally switched to the wakebait, I caught 48 that morning. That one morning, they L-O-V-E-D the wakebait. Another morning, they wanted a jointed, shad-colored Rapala with a rattle, but that was a one and done event. Sure, I caught bass on those same lures other mornings, but never like those two mornings.

 

Another change I made my last two outings was barbless hooks on my lipless crankbaits and jerkbaits. I am pleased with their performance and am thinking of swapping more hooks on other lures to barbless. The barbless hooks remind me to maintain tension and I can always use reminders on technique. 

 

Yesterday, in the first ten fish, only one came on a Whopper Plopper. Four came on the wakebait. Yet, it was the Whopper Plopper they eventually wanted. I love how their mood is always shifting. Sometimes I think I know why, but I'm probably just deluding myself. They are mysterious and I love that about them. 

 

I am so excited to do more froggin' next summer. That is the most exciting way to catch a bass that I've ever experienced. They often hit within a couple feet of my canoe and frequently hit the frog twice or even thrice in a single retrieve and I can't imagine a better boat for froggin' than my canoe, which is so long and light that I float over the lily pads and don't incur much drag.

 

Here's that 19-inch froggin' bass. She came out of a break in the wild rice that was merely five feet across. See how convex she is, like a contact lens. She hit like a tsunami. You know how a tsunami will suck the water away from the shore before it clobbers the shoreline? I think I saw something like that, like she drew the water down a millimeter or two a nanosecond before she hit. I've seen big smallmouth bulge the water under a surface lure a sliver of a second before they hit it and I wonder if she did something similar. There wasn't much water in her hole, which increases the odds of her moving it.

 

See the crawlers too? I eventually quit on them. They simply didn't catch many fish and they're not nearly as fun as lures.

 

Thanks again for all the encouragement! Any women who complain about men not welcoming them into fishing have never been to bassresource.com. 

 

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

My tacklebox is the size of a purse, so I can wear it on my shoulder while carrying the rods, paddles, and fish measuring trough.

 

All the tackle I bring can fit in a backpack -- even when I'm on the boat. And even then I only use about a quarter of that on any given outing. You can tell when I start getting frustrated because I start swapping out lures like a zoo monkey.

 

I try hard to cull down, but then I find a new shiny thing, talk myself into revisiting the tackle I carry around, and the whole process starts anew. It's a problem.

 

Honestly, if I only ever took a spinning rod, some jigheads, and a pack of straight-tailed worms, I'd do just as well on any given body of water* with a fraction of the junk to keep track of.

 

*This is not to say that I'd do well, but I'd do about as well as I would with anything else tied on. YMMV

13 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

All the tackle I bring can fit in a backpack -- even when I'm on the boat. And even then I only use about a quarter of that on any given outing. You can tell when I start getting frustrated because I start swapping out lures like a zoo monkey.

 

I try hard to cull down, but then I find a new shiny thing, talk myself into revisiting the tackle I carry around, and the whole process starts anew. It's a problem.

 

Honestly, if I only ever took a spinning rod, some jigheads, and a pack of straight-tailed worms, I'd do just as well on any given body of water* with a fraction of the junk to keep track of.

 

*This is not to say that I'd do well, but I'd do about as well as I would with anything else tied on. YMMV

Lean and light!

MLF Lake of the Ozarks College Event Recap. Long story short, my partner and I had 4 days of practice and boy we found the winning fish. We were fishing specific docks in the back of skinnier long pockets. They were in about 15-10ft of water. I turned him on to the swimbaits in practice and we got on em.

 

Was able to catch my new PB at 5-8 on a burrito which beat my old PB by 2oz. He absolutely choked it on the first cast. Needless to say we left that pocket quickly. Day before the tourney we would have had close to 20lbs which would be enough for a win, so we were feeling great.

 

Tourney day we faced the same conditions as the day before, but these fish were following his mag draft out from docks and not committing. We could see winning fish follow out eat 3 times and not hook up. I didn’t even get a chance because by the time my glide or swimbait went past they had seen enough. It was disappointing to only bring 3 fish in after watching 10-15 winning fish go crazy on his swimbait and not hook up. Ended up with 7 and change for 55th out of 180 which isn’t bad. It only took 17 and change to win and 12 to qualify for the national championship which hurts a little bit. I haven’t felt this upset about a tourney since loosing the BFL on Cherokee. This keeps me motivated though and I know I am doing the right things to win.
 

Lessons learned: this was the first tourney I really controlled the boat which was awesome. I think he knew I was on to something and I was able to make decisions which was really cool. I also glued a swimbait into his hand and mine which gave us a legit shot to run away with it. Swimbaits catch giants and little fish. He was shocked at the amount of 12-14 inches that ate his magdraft in practice and the tourney.

 

Anyway thanks for reading. Next tourney is in three weeks which I hope to win as I’m fishing with my friend and we got some great info and experience on this lake.

32 minutes ago, JWall14 said:

MLF Lake of the Ozarks College Event Recap. Long story short, my partner and I had 4 days of practice and boy we found the winning fish. We were fishing specific docks in the back of skinnier long pockets. They were in about 15-10ft of water. I turned him on to the swimbaits in practice and we got on em.

 

Was able to catch my new PB at 5-8 on a burrito which beat my old PB by 2oz. He absolutely choked it on the first cast. Needless to say we left that pocket quickly. Day before the tourney we would have had close to 20lbs which would be enough for a win, so we were feeling great.

 

Tourney day we faced the same conditions as the day before, but these fish were following his mag draft out from docks and not committing. We could see winning fish follow out eat 3 times and not hook up. I didn’t even get a chance because by the time my glide or swimbait went past they had seen enough. It was disappointing to only bring 3 fish in after watching 10-15 winning fish go crazy on his swimbait and not hook up. Ended up with 7 and change for 55th out of 180 which isn’t bad. It only took 17 and change to win and 12 to qualify for the national championship which hurts a little bit. I haven’t felt this upset about a tourney since loosing the BFL on Cherokee. This keeps me motivated though and I know I am doing the right things to win.
 

Lessons learned: this was the first tourney I really controlled the boat which was awesome. I think he knew I was on to something and I was able to make decisions which was really cool. I also glued a swimbait into his hand and mine which gave us a legit shot to run away with it. Swimbaits catch giants and little fish. He was shocked at the amount of 12-14 inches that ate his magdraft in practice and the tourney.

 

Anyway thanks for reading. Next tourney is in three weeks which I hope to win as I’m fishing with my friend and we got some great info and experience on this lake.

Congrats on your new PB, and piggie.  That's a fantastic fish, and that's the real prize in my eyes.  

 

The reason I love the idea of big hard swimbaits vs soft swimbaits is situations like yours.   You can get those hard baits to turn around and stare that fish in the face and get that instinct bite.  

5 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Congrats on your new PB, and piggie.  That's a fantastic fish, and that's the real prize in my eyes.  

 

The reason I love the idea of big hard swimbaits vs soft swimbaits is situations like yours.   You can get those hard baits to turn around and stare that fish in the face and get that instinct bite.  

I thought the same thing and was throwing glides behind him. The water was lower and clearer than usual and I think we really only got one chance at em that day. If I went back to that day I would have definitely put a glide in his hands since he was at the front.

Quote

this was the first tourney I really controlled the boat which was awesome.

It is so gratifying to master a new task. Congrats on that new PB! I can't imagine the pressure of tournament fishing. 

 

Quote

You can get those hard baits to turn around and stare that fish in the face and get that instinct bite.

Alex, how do you do ^this^?

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

It is so gratifying to master a new task. Congrats on that new PB! I can't imagine the pressure of tournament fishing. 

 

Alex, how do you do ^this^?

The baits sound complicated, but they are incredibly easy to use outside of the chunking and winding part.    They swim in a relatively tight S pattern, and anytime you jerk it, it causes the bait to turn sideways.

 

I'm a newbie, but I'll just sit there mesmerized by how amazing they look in the water.    Lots of people swim them up to a piling, dock, or piece of cover, and then hit that jerk to make the bait turn sideways.     Others do it when they are trying to coax that strike from a follower, and lastly I add them randomly on the retrieve for any fish that might be following.  

44 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

The baits sound complicated, but they are incredibly easy to use outside of the chunking and winding part.    They swim in a relatively tight S pattern, and anytime you jerk it, it causes the bait to turn sideways.

 

I'm a newbie, but I'll just sit there mesmerized by how amazing they look in the water.    Lots of people swim them up to a piling, dock, or piece of cover, and then hit that jerk to make the bait turn sideways.     Others do it when they are trying to coax that strike from a follower, and lastly I add them randomly on the retrieve for any fish that might be following.  

Fascinating. Thanks! Do you have a brand favorite?

Mist and fog meant I couldn't say no to fishing tonight, but after yesterday's honey-do list I didn't have the battery left to do a 90 mile 'round trip overnight yak mission with my bud. He went there, I stayed here, and we updated each other as the night wore on, and wore on it did. I didn't get a sniff from 11pm thru 1am, and he was skunking too. Both lakes were glass-flat with zero surface activity.

 

What's a boy to do when nothing whatsoever is working in the middle of the night during the 3rd week of October? He throws a black/gold flake trail worm. A trail worm, you wonder? It's just one of half a billion torn up and discarded Senkos I've found laying on trails that I've scooped up and repaired with Mend-it. I had a black with blue flake also, but with the ambient glow of the fog the gold-flake one simply made more sense to me.

 

It got bit immediately by a squirt as soon as I let it settle in some pads. I waded my way down the shore slowly picking apart pads until I got another shorty. I updated my bud to pass on the intel, then made my way down to a large line of pads. I picked that zone apart and was finally rewarded with a nice chunk of a bass. Sent the pic, called my buddy for an update, and I could sense the despair in his voice. Nothing for him yet. By then it was 3:30 am, my lower back was barking, I'd gotten a fish with some horsepower, so I skipped on out of there. On the way home I heard a ding-ding text update. He'd finally gotten one to eat a BullShad, so he beat the skunk too. I was already comfy on the couch when he buzzed me at 4:15. He had me on speaker just before he got up to the launch, and right then he hooked a good one on a Bull Herring. I could hear him winding it in with a thrill in his voice, but it shook off at the yak. Even with the miss, he sounded revitalized. It's funny how an unexpected bite can raise one's spirits after a tough go.

 

 

31 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Fascinating. Thanks! Do you have a brand favorite?

I'm just getting started, so I'm trying to buy the wallet friendly models.

 

The BD Shad seems awesome, but you've got to glue the tail section I've found.   Bought a 6th Sense Trace yesterday, and I think it's the coolest bait I've ever owned.   The BD Shad was 25, and the Trace was 35.   Haven't gotten the Bluegills ones yet.   

 

Gonna try the Trace later today, and will report back on the differences b/t the two.

 

I like these baits because of that big Gizzard shad I found at the end of summer.  Dang near identical looking baits.  

16 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Mist and fog meant I couldn't say no to fishing tonight, but after yesterday's honey-do list I didn't have the battery left to do a 90 mile 'round trip overnight yak mission with my bud. He went there, I stayed here, and we updated each other as the night wore on, and wore on it did. I didn't get a sniff from 11pm thru 1am, and he was skunking too. Both lakes were glass-flat with zero surface activity.

 

What's a boy to do when nothing whatsoever is working in the middle of the night during the 3rd week of October? He throws a black/gold flake trail worm. A trail worm, you wonder? It's just one of half a billion torn up and discarded Senkos I've found laying on trails that I've scooped up and repaired with Mend-it. I had a black with blue flake also, but with the ambient glow of the fog the gold-flake one simply made more sense to me.

 

It got bit immediately by a squirt as soon as I let it settle in some pads. I waded my way down the shore slowly picking apart pads until I got another shorty. I updated my bud to pass on the intel, then made my way down to a large line of pads. I picked that zone apart and was finally rewarded with a nice chunk of a bass. Sent the pic, called my buddy for an update, and I could sense the despair in his voice. Nothing for him yet. By then it was 3:30 am, my lower back was barking, I'd gotten a fish with some horsepower, so I skipped on out of there. On the way home I heard a ding-ding text update. He'd finally got one to eat a BullShad, so he beat the skunk too. I was already comfy on the couch when he buzzed me at 4:15. He had me on speaker just before he got up to the launch, and right then he hooked a good one on a Bull Herring. I could hear him winding it in with a thrill in his voice, but it shook off at the yak. Even with the miss, he sounded revitalized. It's funny how an unexpected bite can raise one's spirits after a tough go.

 

 

Thread is full of diehard Bass heads, you got to love Bass to put in the work that folks like you and Katie put in especially.   

 

Beautiful fish...last one with those deep colors to it.    I did laugh that a guy who owns a small fortune in big swimbaits, picks up discarded worms and fixes them ?  

18 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I did laugh that a guy who owns a small fortune in big swimbaits, picks up discarded worms and fixes them ?  

Yeah, I'm thrifty?

That Trace bait is beautiful. I love the packaging too. It reminds me of the way lures used to come in cardboard boxes with beautiful graphics. I just checked. Cabela's carries the lure. I'm going to buy one.

5 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

That Trace bait is beautiful. I love the packaging too. It reminds me of the way lures used to come in cardboard boxes with beautiful graphics. I just checked. Cabela's carries the lure. I'm going to buy one.

Nice, can't wait to see some beautiful Maine Bass caught off it.

 

100% agree about the packaging.   It's the little things sometimes.   The level of detail on the bait itself is incredible....the top of the removable tails have the same matching scale pattern as the top of the bait.  I mean no fish is ever gonna care about that, but who does.....this guy lol.   The bait is almost too pretty to fish with.....almost ?

Next spring, Alex, I'd like you to coach me on fishing it. I'm assuming it works in the spring. Does it?

 

Like you, I appreciate details. The devil isn't in the details. Angels are! If you glanced at me in my canoe, you'd think that I was a sad sack, but my boat is Kevlar and my paddle is carbon and my rods are G. Loomis and my reels are Stellas. However, next to a metallic flake bass boat with video game electronics rolling off of a twin-axled, chromed trailer, I would look sad with my scratched canoe and plain, dark rods with zero bling.

 

Same with you, Alex. I've seen photos of your aluminum V-hull with the trolling motor, but you're throwing $35 swimbaits and you're throwing them from a platform that's as stealthy as a canoe and puts you close to the water, like a canoe, so you can watch and learn. You put your money and your body where it matters, where you can entice big bass and then land 'em. 

 

Say, I've learned so much from you guys that I'd like to share one of the few things that I've learned on the water and that's this: Long casts catch bass. I'm guessing I catch 85% of my fish within a few feet of the farthest reach of my long casts. It's the same in Canada, where the bass have never heard people sounds and bolt when they do. In Canada, I cast as long as possible, work my lure for a few seconds, and often retrieve it at full speed to cast again. So far in Maine, I work my lure most of the way to the canoe, but here and farther north, the farther I cast, the more fish I catch. Of course, it's harder to hook a fish when it hits way yonder and especially on my beloved surface lures, but in the end, I know I catch more fish with long casts. 

 

New pond tomorrow! It's deep, deep enough to hold trout, so I'm a little nervous about the depth, and there's going to be wind too, but I do love to fish new water and I'll hug those shorelines to be safe.

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Next spring, Alex, I'd like you to coach me on fishing it. I'm assuming it works in the spring. Does it?

 

Like you, I appreciate details. The devil isn't in the details. Angels are! If you glanced at me in my canoe, you'd think that I was a sad sack, but my boat is Kevlar and my paddle is carbon and my rods are G. Loomis and my reels are Stellas. However, next to a metallic flake bass boat with video game electronics rolling off of a twin-axled, chromed trailer, I would look sad with my scratched canoe and plain, dark rods with zero bling.

 

Same with you, Alex. I've seen photos of your aluminum V-hull with the trolling motor, but you're throwing $35 swimbaits and you're throwing them from a platform that's as stealthy as a canoe and puts you close to the water, like a canoe, so you can watch and learn. You put your money and your body where it matters, where you can entice big bass and then land 'em. 

 

Say, I've learned so much from you guys that I'd like to share one of the few things that I've learned on the water and that's this: Long casts catch bass. I'm guessing I catch 85% of my fish within a few feet of the farthest reach of my long casts. It's the same in Canada, where the bass have never heard people sounds and bolt when they do. In Canada, I cast as long as possible, work my lure for a few seconds, and often retrieve it at full speed to cast again. So far in Maine, I work my lure most of the way to the canoe, but here and farther north, the farther I cast, the more fish I catch. Of course, it's harder to hook a fish when it hits way yonder and especially on my beloved surface lures, but in the end, I know I catch more fish with long casts. 

 

New pond tomorrow! It's deep, deep enough to hold trout, so I'm a little nervous about the depth, and there's going to be wind too, but I do love to fish new water and I'll hug those shorelines to be safe.

Great stuff Katie and looking forward to reading the report tomorrow.    Maybe you can get one of those trout to eat.    I really like eating grilled trout.   I'm a big Loomis fan, but I've bought three Alpha Angler rods now within the last month.  These rods won't win beauty contests, but they have a unique magic about them when it comes to pinning fish.   

 

I fished that Trace a bit this afternoon but found I don't yet have the confidence with it or these baits to keep it on long, along with being a very poor bite these last couple of weeks.   Lake fell nicely from 85 to 65 degrees a few weeks ago, but now it's ping ponging back in forth b/t 64 and 67.     Not ready for cold weather, but if that means some consistent action, so be it.    

 

So I put the BD Shad back on and managed to catch a small one on it.    This lure just catches fish it seems.    One reason why I put the BD Shad back on so fast is because the Trace rises quickly, you got to really work it slowly.   It also falls a lot slower than the BD Shad even though both are labeled as slow falling baits.    The action is great on the Trace, but a little less erratic than the BD Shad when jerked.    The BD Shad is a smaller bait though.    On the face, they look like the same bait essentially, however when fished they operate quite differently.        

 

Only other fish was a quality LGM on the MiniMax 1/2oz with Armor Shad trailer.   Was stubborn the last couple outings and kept the bigger profile Jackhammer on, right when I switched today, I caught a quality, and had two other hits iirc.       

So, for my first swimbait, should I buy the Trace or the BD Shad? 

 

I love that evening light in Alabama. Are you able to bass fish even in January? 

57 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

So, for my first swimbait, should I buy the Trace or the BD Shad? 

 

I love that evening light in Alabama. Are you able to bass fish even in January? 

Yeah it's year round down here......if we get snow people lose their minds ?

 

Give me some time on that bait question, I'm such a newb right now I'd hate to steer you wrong.  I can say I know you'll love big swimbait fishing as it's about the only thing that comes close to how you catch so many of your fish up top.   You're spoiled catching all those awesome fish on topwater ?

 

 

A 13" tonight on the Super Spook Jr. again. Why did it take me so long to start fishing top water? It's addictive.